Life-boat-launching mechanism.



F. KRATKY.

LIFE BOAT LAUNCHING MEGHANISM.

\ APPLICATION FILED MAYG, 1914.

1, 1 @337 1 Patented July 21, 1914.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Snow Mot lvi/tmeooao 7 17 4 n k after/"e1 FRANK KRATKY, OF NEW YORK, N.Y.

LIFE-BOAT-LAUNCHING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 6, 1914. Serial No. 836,717.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK KRATKY, a citizen of the United States, andresiding at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Life-Boat-Launching Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

The primary' object of this invention is to provide a serviceable meansupon the deck of a ship whereby the life boats carried upon the deck arereadily launched into the water filled with passengers whenever the samemay be found desirable.

A further object is to provide the deck of a ship with a plurality oflife boats and with a folded launching way readily poscribed,

sitioned for sliding the boats into the water and then capable of beingwithdrawn and positioned inoperatively above the deck.

A still further object is to provide pivoted launching ways uponopposite sides of aship, each consisting of two portions pivoted to thedeck and whereby the boats may be guided slidably from the deck to thewater.

With these general objects in view and others that will appear as thenature of the invention 'is better understood, the same consists in thenovel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fullydeillustrated .in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in theappended claims.

In the drawings forming a part of this application and wherein likenumerals of reference designate corresponding parts throughout theseveral views :Figure 1 is a side elevation of the bow portion of a shipprovided with the present invent-ion with the launching waysinoperatively positioned. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the shipshowing one of the ways inoperative and the other in position for thelaunching of a life boat thereby. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the same.Fig; 4 is a side elevation of the lower portion of the mast showing thewinding drum. Fig. 5 is a top plan view thereof, the mast being shown insection,

and, Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view taken through the outersection of oneof the launching ways.

Referring more in detail to the drawings, the ship 10 is illustratedprovided upon its deck 11 with a plurality of life boats 11 Q I tions 14have similar cords the way 12 mounted on end and positioned adacent agunwale 13 of the ship. A mast 1 1 is mounted upright centrally upon thedeck. Launching ways are positioned upon each side of the mast 14c forproviding a means to launch the life boats 10 into the water. Each ofsuch ways consists of two sections 14 and 15, the inner section 14 ofwhich has its inner end hinged to brackets 16 upon the ship deck andconsists of oppo site side rails 17 wit-h rollers 18 journaled Itherebetween. The outer section 15 of the way is provided with similarside rails 19 having rollers 20 journaled between the same. Each outersection 15 .is hingedlymounted to the'brackets 21 positioned adj a centthe gunwa-les of the ship and whereby the section 15 of either of thelaunchingways may be moved upon its hinges to assume either theoperative or inoperative positions, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The outersections 15 are provided with bails 22 to which cords 23 are secured,and which cords pass over pulleys 24 upon the mast adjacent the'topthereof and also over lower pulleys 25, thence passing to the windingdrum 26 upon which they are wound. The winding drum 26 is provided witha central gear 27 in constant mesh with a power gear 28 and whereby thedrum is operable in either desired direction for winding up or unwindingthe cords 23. The inner sec- 29 secured :to each of the same, whichcords 29 pass over the pulleys 30 of the mast and are then secured tothe before-mentioned cords 23 With this arrangement either side portion26 or 26 of the drum 26 may be separately operated for winding up themounted one of the cords 23 and it will be seen that when .such cord 23is so completely wound up on its drum portion, the free ends of bothofsections 14 and 15 operatively moved thereby will contact the mast 14,with both of said sections assuming an arching position above the deck,as illustrated upon the starboard side of the ship in Fig. 2, and inwhich it will be seen that the inner section it is of less length thanthe outer section 15 and is positioned therebeneath when supported incontact with the mast. A release of the desired portion of the drum 26allows the two way sections to be pushed outwardly and moved upon theirhinges to Patented July 21. 191 1.

vided with base brackets 31 upon the inner.

' ends of the side rails 19 thereof which are boats while the outer endsof the with floats 32 adapted. to bepositioned upon adapted to abutagainst the outer side of the ship hull when said outer sections areoutwardly-positioned for launching the life rails 19 of fsaid''section's of the ways are "provided the water for supporting the outerends of positioned upon the way sections. Opposite posts .33 are I outersections 15, which posts supportcords -34, thus forming a railing atboth sides of the way sections 15.

-"27 by either of the drum sections 26 -or 26 as controlled by 40, whilethe lowering It is to be noted that a turning of the gear means of thepower gear 28 operates.

the clutching mechanism lever. of both of the ways may be accomplished;simultaneously 1 by merely disconnecting the power from either or bothof the drum sections,- and thus allowing the ways to slowly drop totheir outer operative positions.

- It'will be seen that, the desired one of the life boats 12 may bereadily taken from its :1 S position upon thedeck and placed upon theshown to be preferable embodiments thereof, it is deck section of one ofthe ways 14 and then filled with passengers from the ship,-and when thesame is filled, the boat may be pushed over the adjacent gunwale andupon the rollers of the adjacent outer section 15 of the way, andwhereby the boat will slide downwardly and off of the outer free end ofthe way into the water, launched without any liability of being-ca '9sized, while it'is obvious that sailors may he positioned along the siderails 19 of the outer sections 15.if desired, as well as at the terminalfloats 32'thereof. I

While the forms of the invention herein and described are what arebelieved nevertheless to be understood that various -forms andmodifications may be resorted to without; departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as claimed.

' winding means the opposite rails 19 of the- "centra,tions'hingedly-mounted upon the deck at opposite sidesofthe mast andadapted for :contactingthe mast tive positions,

: means for said way sections, 3. 'A- device .of the class .contact withthe water,

comprising side rails and rollers mounted and thus be easily,

What I claim as new is 2-- p 1. In combination with a ship having a mastcentrally-mounted on the deck thereof, of pivoted way sectionspositioned upon the deck and at opposite sides of the mast,

floats upon the outer free ends of the outer ones of said way sectionsand adapted for positioning upon the water, a winding drum upon saiddeck, hoisting cords secured to said way sections and having portionsthereof wound upon said drum, and operative for said drum whereby saidway sections are adapted for assuming arched positions above the deckcontacting said mast.

2. A -device of the class described, comprisin a ship having a deck anda mast ly-mounted thereon, inner way secwhen in their inoperaouter waysections hinged to the opposite gunwales of the ship and also adapted tocontact the mast with their free ends when noperatively positioned inarched formation above thev deck,v and operating described, comprisingin combination with'aship having a v mast centrally-positioned upon thedeck thereof, hinged to the deck ad acent the foot of the mast andterminating short of the adjacent gunwale of the ship whenoperatively-positioned, outer way sections hinged to theopposite-gunwales of the ship and adapted for positioning the free endsthereof in floating said way sections in presence of two witnesses.

FRANK KRATKY.

Witnesses:

SIMON STEIN, GRACE Gossm.

of inward way sections oppositely-

